It was 36 years in the making, but the follow-up to Top Gun finally hit the big screen in 2022.

Legacy sequels can be a huge risk decades later, but Tom Cruise’s Top Gun Maverick turned out to be a monumental hit with both the critics and the box office.

The Oscar-winning blockbuster features scenes shot inside actual fighter jets flown by the star, has 96 per cent positive on Rotten Tomatoes and made $1.496 billion globally.

The 62-year-old reprises his role as US Navy Captain Pete…